“Enrich people’s daily living by offering ‘feel-good’ clothes”:
this is 45R’s monozukuri (manufacturing) philosophy. After decades of pursuing this ideal, we’re more committed to it than ever. Our approach to T-shirts has deepened in the same way.
We take inspiration from vintage T-shirts, but constantly refine and update our designs to stay true to the uniquely 45R monozukuri process.
First, the raw material: Zimbabwe cotton.
This is the star cotton at 45R. Grown under the dazzling African sun, it has body and energy to spare. When knitted into cloth, the dryness of its texture is unbeatable. All of our Zimbabwe cotton is harvested by hand to protect the cotton plants from unnecessary stress and preserve the long, durable fibers.
Next, we use custom equipment to spin this cotton into yarn.
We intentionally maintain a certain degree of irregularity, with each strand of yarn varying in thickness along its length. This gives cloth knitted from the yarn a slightly rougher surface, making it less clingy and more comfortable to wear. It’s also why our T-shirts don’t turn stiff or tough in the wash.
Once the yarn meets our expectations, we knit it into Tenjiku fabric. Using a tight knit makes the texture pop, imparting a lively sense of irregularity. The fabric almost seems to be laughing with delight, which we love to see.
When cutting and sewing the fabric, we put kindness for the wearer first. Our custom-made thread is designed to mellow and mature in step with the rest of the T-shirt. Our overlock machine has been modified and improved again and again for narrower seam margins. Even the scraps of fabric left over from the pattern aren’t wasted. We use them to reinforce the back of the garment, where T-shirts are most prone to tearing. All this attention to detail has one purpose: to create a T-shirt that lasts for years and feels good to wear.
Instead of the sewn-in quality tags usually seen in T-shirts, we print the quality information directly on the fabric.
Here, too, how our clothes feel against your skin is our priority.
Look closely, and you’ll also see that the printed text is slightly irregular, as if dancing. The reason?
We cut out hand-written letters, one by one, to print on the fabric. We want all the work on every T-shirt to be done by hand, every step of the way.
